The popular perception is that law and order in Delhi has collapsed. This is not triggered just by yesterday's broad daylight murder of a 21 years old Delhi University student Radhika Tanwar.
The law and order in Delhi has collapsed because there is a systemic breakdown in the enforcement by the police. Delhi police is a one big fat organisation full of corrupt people lacking in the policing character to do anything to redeem the lost cause of making the capital of the country crime free.
The spate of crime in Delhi is mind-boggling. No one is safe. Anyone can become victim of crime in the capital of the country anytime.
Delhi police and its master, the Union home ministry along with the top man P Chidambaram, are in love with statistics. To any question on law and order in Delhi having gone down the barrel, these shameless custodian of people's safety fall back on statistics. This is a fraud on the people.
Delhi police is not accountable to the people of the city. This is with the Union Home ministry. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and P Chidambaram have contradictory perceptions on city law and order. While the former calls its shameful that people are getting killed in big number, the latter says all is well as he has statistics to prove.
Delhi government has its own Home department, which keeps a close eye on the law and order situation in the city. Top bureaucrats of the Delhi government are of the opinion that 98 per cent of the crime incidents do not result in registration of FIRs. This explains the cooked up statistics of P Chidambaram and Delhi police.
The malaise is much deep rooted. Delhi has borders with western UP, which is already worrying the state chief minister Mayawati for abnormally high crime rate, and Haryana. To top them all Delhi itself has villages littered across its length and breadth. The people in Delhi's villages have made mullah due to their properties. But their young generation is a breed of uneducated, uncultured and lawless lot.
Further, Delhi police gets most of its man power from the rural areas of the capital from the ranks of constable up to the inspectors. This is reflected in the whole approach of the Delhi police in dealing with lawless people, with whom its manpower is on friendly terms.
So, do not be surprised when you find that the Delhi police most often mediating at crime scenes in place of nabbing the law-breakers. You may be shocked that more often the Delhi police personnel side with the law-breakers and persuade you not to insist for registration of an FIR. This author has experienced all these first hand.
It's very unfortunate that the people whom the voters elect in Delhi do not have any say in the policing. With no accountability Delhi police is a force of "lathmaar" and having no intent to break the bone of the growing lot of law breakers. In the past it has been seen that senior officials of the Delhi police have been in collusion with the property dealers, majority of whom are source of a number of crimes and get away with their acts with impunity.
It's not that the senior citizens and women alone are living in Delhi with a sense of fear. All law abiding citizens in the capital live with a sense of insecurity. And worse is that they do not trust the police. Delhi makes a fit case of lawless city and redemption is not even in the immediate future as there is no intent.
